Wooly Minnie

Bizarro is brought to you today by Lip Sniffers.

Dear readers of my blog,

The more observant of you will notice there is more than one cartoon posted today and the more inquisitive of this subset of observant types will wonder why. I'll keep you in suspense no longer by saying it is because I won't be posting for the next few days and wanted to leave you with a little something extra.

I'm on my way to Hollywood this evening, no, not to star in the next Ron Howard blockbuster about the hidden symbols in my cartoons being clues that lead to the identity of Jesus's secret lover, who begat his child, which then led to a series of begatting resulting in none other than founding father, Benjamin Franklin, who left secret clues to a previously unknown companion document to the Declaration of Independence, the Proclamation of Philly Party Spots. Instead, I'm going to the National Cartoonists Society annual convention.

The convention marks the weekend after the fortnight during which hundreds of professional cartoonists from all over North America work their asses off to get ahead on deadlines so they can arrive dead tired and ready for a weekend of irresponsible alcohol consumption. Should be fun.

The cartoons herein are fun, I think. I have fond memories of my own Wooly Willy from childhood, and the time I brought it to school in the sixth grade, it went missing, and I innocently asked the teacher, "Have you seen my Wooly Willy?" The principal later explained to me in the privacy of his office, why this alarmed her.

The Minnie joke is fun for me because it walks a dangerous line of litigation. While parodies are legal, Disney loves to sue–especially when the parodies have sexual connotations. There is no express sexual content to this cartoon, but you have to admit that Minnie has a nice rack.



My next post will be on Tuesday, May 26, I hope to see you all here again then. In the meantime, have a weekend worthy of a sheik.

Your humble servant,
Mr. Piraro

FCBM5 Day 21

It's day twenty-one of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Franco Ippolito. The five comics that Franco listed are:

1. Planetary
2. Iron Fist
3. Incredible Hercules
4. Locke & Key
5. Booster Gold

And his other thing of interest is football.

For Franco I have the first issue of Boom! Studio's Lovecraftian Necronomicon by William Messner-Loebs & Andrew Ritchie.

For Franco's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Peanuts Halloween comic.

Franco's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
27 entries
50 free comics sent so far
10 days remaining

Lessons Not Learned from Watchmen

One of the reasons I believe that the Watchmen collection has been a perennial best-seller for over twenty years is the fact that it is complete in one volume. An interested reader can pick up the entire story at once and not have to worry about finding Watchmen Book 2.

But for some reason, DC has been releasing their collections of their limited series in multi-volume chunks. This week sees the release of Rann/Thanagar Holy War, vol. 1, which collects just issues #1-4 (of 8) and the attendant Hawkman Special. The War That Time Forgot, a twelve-issue series, is being released as two separate volumes. And possibly the worst offender of all, Justice, the twelve-issue series from Alex Ross & co., has been released as three separate hardcover volumes (later as paperbacks), each collecting just four issues of the series! If you want the entire series in one volume, your only choice is the $100 Absolute edition.

While there may be some short-term gain for DC in releasing their collections this way, in the long term I think they'd be much better served by releasing an entire limited series together in one volume. Much easier for stores to stock, and much more attractive for readers to get the complete story in one purchase.

The Sound of One Hand Inking

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by Singing Monks.

Okay, I admit I don't know anything about Zen Buddhism, but the whole "nothingness" thing is a common conception and cartoons are often built on these, whether correct or not.

Like the Moses cartoon from a couple of days ago; several readers left comments on the inaccuracies of my drawing – from the error of having the burning bush and the ten commandments in the same picture to the fact that Moses is wearing shoes on "hallowed ground." I also got a few emails of this sort.

Being neither a Zen Buddhist nor a believer in the historical accuracy of the Bible, I admit that I don't get very nitpicky about these things. I just draw the cartoon in a way that everyone can understand and move on to the next crushing deadline. I don't mind the corrections, by the way. I'm kind of a trivia buff anyway, so I always enjoy a few more tidbits of knowledge.

In spite of this flippant attitude toward history, I actually do try to be more accurate in my cartoons than do most cartoonists. I research historical costumes and such, to get things mostly right, and often look up what certain objects look like to add that extra bit of convincing detail, even though I'm perfectly capable of an approximation out of my own head. But if the accuracy conflicts with the joke, as it would have in the Moses cartoon, I toss it out and use the common misconception instead. Moses talking to a burning bush is immediately understood; Moses talking to a blinding beam of light would have been widely misconstrued to be a scene from Star Trek.

Of the handful of "Zen" cartoons I've done over the years, here is one of my favorites:

FCBM5 Day 20

It's day twenty of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Edgardo Ortiz. The five comics that Edgardo listed are:

1. Barry Ween
2. Scott Pilgrim
3. Persepolis
4. Alan's War
5. Green Lantern

And his other thing of interest is The Lord of the Rings.

For Edgardo I have the first issue of Aaron Williams' humorous fantasy series Nodwick.

For Edgardo's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Donald Duck Halloween comic.

Edgardo's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
27 entries
48 free comics sent so far
11 days remaining

Reap it Good

Bizarro is brought to you today by Dignity in Death.

I draw bar scenes a lot because it is a good setting for people to make pronouncements about their lives, but I usually dread it. When drawn from the customer's point of view, the bottles of liquor are a vexation (though they provide lots of spots for the symbols), and when drawn from the bartender's perspective, there is the problem of the rest of the room.

Occasionally, when I'm not pressured by late deadlines or other things to do, I'll really get into a detailed drawing of a barroom or a city street scene. When I've got the time, I enjoy it. But whether I'm in the mood for it or not, I always do it because I know a lot of my readers like the extra details.

Who cares about these trivial details of your life, Dan? you might ask. As I type this, I'm asking that of myself.

Sorry to have bothered you.

FCBM5 Day 19

It's day nineteen of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Justin Karguth. The five comics that Justin listed are:

1. Comic Book Comics
2. Daredevil
3. Jughead
4. Walking Dead
5. Spider-Man

And his other thing of interest is the tv show Boston Legal.

For Justin I have the first issue of Mark's Waid's brand new supernatural detective series The Unknown.

For Justin's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Donald Duck Halloween comic.

Justin's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
26 entries
46 free comics sent so far
12 days remaining